"Here, have a little more," said Emily, offering Lynda the bottle of water again.
Lynda drank the remaining water and handed the now-empty bottle back to Emily with a more sincere smile.
"Are you hungry?" Emily asked.
Lynda nodded.
"Well, how about we get you cleaned up and into some fresh clothes? Then I can see about rustling up some food for you. Does that work?"
Again, Lynda nodded.
Emily helped Lynda to her feet, then escorted her to the adjoining bathroom, sitting her on the commode. She turned on the shower and ran the water until it was nice and warm, marveling at the fact that they at least had this one basic luxury, courtesy of the nuclear generator Parsons had hooked Point Loma's electrical system to.
"Let's get you out of these," Emily said, as she began to help Lynda out of her dirt-crusted clothes, while trying not to turn her nose up at the woman's body odor. Lynda had lost probably twenty pounds since Emily had last seen her, her ribs were clearly visible through her skin. Lynda had no shyness about standing naked before Emily, not through any sense of confidence, Emily thought, but rather because the poor woman had no energy to expend on being embarrassed. Emily understood this. She had gone through a similar time back when she had been trapped in her Manhattan apartment when the red rain first fell. She knew only too well the effect prolonged stress and fear could have on both a person's psyche and body.
"In you get," said Emily, guiding Lynda into the shower.
Maybe it was the simple comforting feeling of hot water cleansing her skin, or maybe it was subtler, perhaps the exercising of a normal everyday routine, but as the water washed away the dirt from Lynda's body, Emily thought she saw life flow back into the woman. Her posture straightened, and she leaned against the glass wall of the shower, her head pressed against her forearms as the water beat against her skin. She let out a long sigh. "My God," she said, "I never...I thought..."
"I understand," said Emily. "Just take your time. Let me give you some privacy. I'll be right outside."
Emily sat on the side of the bathtub, hoping that allowing Lynda to clean herself in private would help accelerate her recovery process. Fifteen minutes passed before Lynda turned off the shower. She pulled a towel that Emily had slung over the shower door for her, and when she stepped out, it was wrapped tightly around her.
Emily smiled, almost saying what she was thinking: you look human again, but caught herself. Instead she said, "Feeling better?"
Lynda smiled broadly, honestly. Her eyes looked brighter, though her face still looked haggard.
"Let’s get you those clothes?" She led Lynda out into the bedroom and opened the closet. "There should be something that fits."
Lynda found fresh underwear and slipped them on, then pulled out a pair of jeans and a blouse, checked their length and fit then put those on, too.
"That's much better," said Emily.
"Thank you," said Lynda. She took a second and looked at herself in the wardrobe mirror. "Oh my God, I look like crap," she said, but her observation was curtailed by yet another smile.
"You've been through a lot," said Emily. "Now, how about we go find you some food?"
•••
Lynda ate in silence.
Emily had expected Lynda to wolf down the contents of the MRE Mac had prepared for her, but instead she seemed to be savoring every bite, taking her time. It was just the three of them in the apartment now, Mac having sent the rest of his men out to perform some make-work duties to allow them the privacy to talk.
When she was done, Lynda belched loudly, apologized, and smiled, embarrassed.
Mac gave a deep chuckle, "Don't worry about it. You should hear some of the noises my men make after they've eaten."
"Do you feel up to talking about what happened, now?" asked Emily, placing a reassuring hand on Lynda's.
Lynda nodded and took a large gulp from a glass of water. "After you and Rhiannon left," she began, "Valentine was livid. She was sure that someone else within the camp had helped the two of you escape. She blamed it on Hubbard, although he denied it. But Valentine wasn't listening to anyone, and, looking back on it now, I think it was all just a part of her plan to consolidate her power-base, and Hubbard was the one person who seemed to have no problem standing up to her. Valentine put him through a sham trial and then she had him shot."
"What!" Emily exclaimed. Wallace Hubbard had been the camp's doctor. He had been kind to her, and news of his murder reinforced her hatred for Valentine.
"It was a warning to anyone else that thought they could question her authority. Anyone who disagreed with her or objected to her orders got a visit from one of her goons who convinced them with their fists to change their mind."
"So, where did everyone go?" said Mac
"About five days after you escaped, one of the lookouts reported a strange light to the northwest. We all looked at it; it was green flashes in the sky; like meteors. Very bright. Silent. There were hundreds of them. It went on for hours. Some of the men wanted to go investigate, but Valentine forbade them. I walked down to the dock and boarded the submarine to get a better view of the light show, and fell asleep in the conning tower's observation deck. The next morning, when I came back, everyone was gone. Everyone! I went to all my friends' apartments, checked them all, but everyone had just vanished. I found plates of breakfast food on the tables, showers still running. Whatever happened, it happened quickly and, I think all at once. I...I went back to the submarine, because whatever had taken all the others, obviously hadn't thought to check there. And that's where I stayed."
Emily and Mac exchanged glances.
"After a time, I began to doubt that there had ever really been anyone else. That maybe I had imagined everything, everyone, and that I was the only survivor. The idea that I was all alone, well..."
Emily squeezed Lynda's hand. "It's okay," she said, "we understand."
"When I heard you all entering the submarine, I thought that maybe whatever had taken everyone else had finally come back for me. I was terrified. That's why I hid."
Mac spoke next. "Did you see anything unusual? After everyone disappeared?
Lynda shook her head. "Just the weird lights in the sky the night before everyone vanished. But I didn't leave the submarine again after that first morning, so I don't really know."
Mac caught Emily's eye and said, "Let's talk."
"We'll be right back," said Emily.
The two of them walked out of the apartment and stood in the corridor, talking in low tones.
"What do you think?" said Mac.
"Those strange lights in the sky she described; think it could be the Locusts?"
"Maybe," said Mac, "or maybe it was the Northern Lights or any number of other things that could account for it."
"Right," Emily said, "but it can't be just a coincidence that the next morning everyone had vanished. It’s not like they'd just up and leave without her. And I've seen what alien tech can do; the Caretakers lifted Adam right out of our bedroom. If these creatures are even half as technologically advanced as the Caretakers were, it's not out of the realm of possibility that they could do the same thing."
Mac breathed in slowly and deeply. "My biggest concern, right after finding out what happened here, is if something really did abduct around a thousand people without anyone putting up a fight, then what are we going to do if they come back for us? Better we locate them first. We'll need to find out exactly where these green flashes Lynda saw in the sky were. Take a little look-see at what we can find out there."
Emily nodded. "I'd like to say that that many people can't just up and vanish off the face of the Earth, but after everything that we've experienced since the red rain came, well, let's just say that I'm keeping an open mind. When do we leave?"
CHAPTER 12
"I would like to volunteer myself and my people's help," Petter said, after Emily explained that they intended to try and track down the source of the green flares i
n the sky.
"Thought you might," said Mac, with an approving nod.
Petter looked at his watch. "Give me forty-five minutes for us to grab our gear and supplies, and we will be ready to roll and rock."
"You mean rock and roll," said Emily.
"Yes, indeed," said Petter, smiling broadly.
Mac shook his head in mock confusion. "It's too late to set off tonight. We don't want to be traipsing around the jungle in the dark. How does dawn tomorrow sound to you?"
Petter nodded. "We will be ready."
"Okay," Mac continued, "we'll rendezvous at the north gate."
"Yes," said Petter. He gave a sharp salute to Mac, turned and went to find his people.
•••
A bank of gray clouds greeted Emily and the others in a dawn sky that looked heavy with the potential for heavy rain. The morning air was oppressive, and Emily felt the throb of a headache above her eyes thanks to the storm's approaching low-pressure front.
"Everyone ready?" Emily asked, as Petter and four of his Norwegian fighters joined her, Thor, Mac, and his three-man security team at the north gate. Rhiannon had been charged with remaining behind in the Machine to watch over the base, despite her objections.
"As we'll ever be," Mac said. He gave a long look at the clouds, still distant for now. He checked his weapon one final time, cradled it in his arms, nodded to his men, then looked at Emily.
"Lead the way," Emily said, falling in behind her husband as the team ducked under the arm of the security gate and moved toward the jungle. Lynda had said the green flashes appeared to be north of Point Loma, but she couldn't estimate how far away the lights had actually been, so Mac had made sure everyone brought enough supplies to last them six days. If they hadn't found any evidence that linked the flares to the Locusts by the third day, they would turn around and head back.
"Here we go again," said Mac, as they crossed from open ground into the red jungle. The transition was always an eye-opener; the line of Titan trees and tall brush that delineated the edge of the jungle gave only a taste of the alienness that lay beyond.
Petter said something in Norwegian to his people and the five of them exchanged a quick succession of short sentences. Emily couldn't understand a word they said, but the meaning behind them was obvious from their faces: awe, fear, wonder, astonishment, and a bit more fear for good measure.
"It's something else, isn't it?" Emily said, stepping closer to Petter.
"It is unbelievable. Beautiful, in its own way."
Emily nodded. "Yes, I suppose it is. Prettier than the rows and rows of houses that were here before, at least." The skeletal remains of those houses lay all around them, still visible even beneath the plant growth. Most were now little more than rubble and jutting pieces of frame, or the occasional lonely brick chimney stack that still stood upright, defying gravity and the jungle.
"Mac told me that you saw all of this happen," Petter said. "That you saw the rain...change everything."
Emily nibbled on her lower lip for a second. "Yes, I saw the transformation. I lived in Manhattan when the red rain came."
"You saw the people transformed?"
"Yes, even the people," she said. "I thought the rain had killed everyone, but now, now I'm not sure they were really dead. I think that maybe, the rain placed them in a state that kept them all barely alive, just alive enough that the transformation could take place. They became...monsters. But they were monsters that had a purpose; they became...well, everything you see."
Petter stopped mid-step. "You mean that these," he tapped his hand against the curling root of a Titan tree that stretched across their path "were all...human?"
Emily nodded. "Maybe. Or any of the other animals that lived around here. But yeah, that tree might have been several hundred people before the red rain."
"My God," said Petter, slowly removing his hand as he gazed up the twisted trunk of the Titan tree toward the canopy. "It is like magic. Beyond my understanding. What kind of technology can do that?"
"Perverted," Emily answered flatly. She stopped walking. Looked up and began to turn away.
"Everything okay, love?" Mac asked, stopping next to her.
Emily said, "The Caretaker told me that they were supposed to help us, that their original programming was to enhance life, to make sure that it thrived wherever they found it. That purpose was perverted by the Locusts. It's just now dawning on me what might have been. How...beautiful this planet could have been for us, if only the corruption of the ideals of whatever species created the Caretakers had not taken place."
"Ooo-kay," said Mac, "not really sure where this is going."
Emily turned and looked at her husband, placed a hand gently against his cheek. "Suppose we win this fight. Suppose we beat the Locusts, drive them from the planet. And it's all ours again. What then? What do we do then?"
"We start over," said Mac. "We get a second chance in this world. So, we start over. And this time, we do it right."
•••
"Well, we're not getting across that," said Mac.
They stood on a raised berm running along the bank of a wide inlet that, to Emily's eyes, looked man-made. The inlet ran from the Pacific Ocean on their left, inland to the east for as far as she could see, which, admittedly was not that far thanks to the dense jungle on either side of the inlet. The tide was high and the inlet was flooded, which put about three hundred meters or so of seawater between where she and the team stood and where they needed to be, on the opposite side. Mac pulled out his map, did some quick referencing, and then announced, "This, apparently, is the San Diego River." He pointed across the inlet at the remains of some large mostly-intact buildings, visible despite the jungle that sprouted up around them. "And that's what used to be SeaWorld across the other side. If we follow the inlet farther inland we should find a couple of bridges we can use to cross."
"Assuming the bridges are still intact," said Emily.
"They'll be intact," Mac said, encouragingly.
"Uh, huh," said Emily, and began following the inlet's trajectory east.
The first bridge they came to was nothing more than a row of pier-columns rising from the water. The actual deck of the bridge had collapsed completely into the river, so the group kept walking until they came to the second bridge. This was in better condition but not by much. Large sections of the deck lay in crumbling piles just below the surface of the water. The third and final bridge was in the same state.
"Told ya," said Emily.
Mac made a face at her. "Okay, well I guess we keep walking east then."
About two hours later, they found what had once been the 5 freeway. It appeared out of the jungle with no warning, the blacktop cracked and broken, but, for the most part, in pretty good condition, protected from the elements by the thick canopy of red far above it. It would cut down their travel time significantly.
They followed the 5 north until they came to another bridge. This one looked to be in almost perfect condition.
"Looks good to me," said Mac, after he had taken out a pair of binoculars and cast its glassy eyes over the bridge. He checked his watch. "We've got maybe three hours of light left. Let's cross here, double back to SeaWorld, and find somewhere to pitch a camp for the night."
The bridge held up...just. They were taking their time moving across it, using the west side of the four-lane span, chatting quietly amongst themselves when a sound like twisting metal filled the air. Everyone turned to look back in the direction they had come in time to see a section of the bridge they had crossed just twenty meters behind them, break away and crash into the water below with a whoosh of spray.
"Well, shit!" said Mac. "Double time across the bridge. Now."
They jogged the rest of the way.
"This way," said Mac, pointing at a section of the bridge's sidewall that had crumbled away. One after the other, they jumped the meter and a half down onto the embankment that lay beyond, creating a natural step back down into the j
ungle. At the bottom of the embankment, they found themselves wading through a stinking swamp of stagnant water as they continued back in the direction of the ocean.
"What do you know," said Mac a few minutes later. "Looks like luck is on our side for a change." Ahead of them was another road running east to west, following the shape of the inlet. The hardtop was bumpy and broken, but far easier to travel than slogging through the jungle and swamp.
They continued along the road for twenty minutes before they came to an open expanse of concrete off to their right. Like the road, the concrete was cracked and broken in places, red weed and bushes having taken root within the fissures. But there was nothing larger than some tall grass pushing up through the cracks.
"Parking lot for SeaWorld," Mac said. The travelers could see straight across the open lot to what Emily guessed had been the famous (or infamous, depending on who you asked at the time) marine theme park.
Mac looked at the sky. Evening was still distant enough, but the clouds they had seen when they first set out earlier that day now filled the sky, sucking up the light. Mac pulled out his binoculars and scanned the distant ruins of the oceanarium. "It seems quiet enough. We should have enough time left to give the grounds a quick once-over; try and find somewhere we can bed down for the night. Let's move."
•••
The security wall encircling the sea-park had crumbled and collapsed in multiple places around the perimeter, allowing Emily and the team to easily slip through. Ahead of them, fallen pieces of what had once been a giant waterslide littered the ground. Beyond that, a large building lay enshrouded in red plants.
"It looks like it's still intact," said Petter, nodding at the building.
"At least from this angle," Emily added.
"Let's go see what we can see then, shall we?" said Mac.
They walked across the open ground to the building, then followed its edge until they found a door hidden behind a growth of thick, scaly vines. The door opened with only a creak of resistance when Mac pushed against it. "See," he said, "told you luck was with us today." He led the group inside, following a corridor until he found what had once been offices.
Extinction Point: Kings (Extinction Point Series (5 book series)) Page 11